Although the main function of neoStampa is textile printing and color management, it is possible to use it for color separation and filming. Since there are no options for a calibration wizard for setting up a printer for filming, we'll have to set it up manually. The printing in the FILM mode differs from the printing in the RIP mode because many functions belonging to color are hidden or inactive.
Step-by-Step
1. Open neoStampa and create a new job on File | New or by clicking on the icon
at the top menu of the screen. We select Separation Printing and the printer we'll be using. If there's no color scheme yet, we can leave this field blank.
2. Open the Printer Scheme Manager by clicking on the three-point icon at the top menu of the screen, left to the Print button.
3. We set the printer Mode as K only and we enter the proper resolution. The printing quality refers to the actual way in which the machine prints. Some printers allow you to print in various resolutions or modes, varying the final quality of the printing.
4. When printing film, it is very important to control the use of ink in order to achieve maximum opacity, which is the amount of ink that polyester film can absorb. The use of ink should be at its top value, making sure that the ink dries well and doesn't spill. We must also make sure that small details such as dots or fine lines can be reproduced. If such details are lost, it means that there is an ink excess, and it should be lowered. Once reached the correct amount of ink, we should save that scheme so that we don't have to enter the values manually every time. But take into account that, according to the resolution of each print, the value of the ink amount can vary.
We print the Black Test and read it to find the Ink Limit. We're looking for maximum value without bleeding, that dries correctly and is opaque to light when contact-copied. We set the ink limit by clicking on the three-point icon on the Ink Control section of the Ink tab and introducing the name of the profile and the values on Ink Limit.
5. We save the scheme and load it on the Separation Layout, and print Grayscale Linearisation Test to generate a linearisation curve and we read the values.
6. We import a file on the Separation Layout and we tick the Linearise black ink box. We click on Edit and introduce the inverted values of the curve we read and save it. It is recommended to export this curve for safekeeping. We can introduce the values of the Halftoning Method we'll be using.
Additional information
neoStampa is able to convert directly RGB files to grayscale, CMYK, and hexacrome, but to separate extra channels (PANTONE) the only formats we can work with are Illustrator AI, EPS, and PDF, Photoshop PDF, and multi-channel PSD.
Please be aware that for converting an RGB+ file into CMYK+ separation an ICC profile is needed (if not, the black channel separation is not generated).